The purge of the farming class in various Communist dictatorships is well documented. The regimes in China (1958-62) and Russia into the Ukraine (1920-39), identified those who were independent of state control, and implemented a heavy-handed oppression designed to turn true productivity toward collectivist goals. These regimes are but a version of what is being proposed in modern America.

Today’s elite seem to have learned from the messy approach of Mao, for instance (the boot in the face of 1984), and have opted for a similar eradication campaign, but they are doing so largely through excessive regulations coordinated between private companies and government. These policies and regulations are handed down by political and corporate leadership, and have become de facto laws enforced by compromised judges. This forms the foundation of classical bureaucracy.

Unlike Mao’s collectivist state, today’s state of America is pure Fascism. From both authoritarian sides, however, the independent-minded are squeezed — the man who believes his home to be his castle; the woman who wishes to be free of the boys’ club corporate rule; those who have unacceptable ideas like peace and feedom; or simply those who wish to be left the hell alone and not be branded a terrorist. There is no better example of this than the control over food production and distribution, as this is at the heart of what it means to be truly independent.

Farmers are America’s original entrepreneurs, and have been instrumental in forming the strong middle class for which all free countries are known. Mao Zedong knew that if he were to build his collectivist state, he had to eradicate the very base which threatened his statist control. Today’s corporations have used the color of law instead of brute force, employing a combination of their legal designation as “persons” and using the revolving door of the corporate-government state to infiltrate key positions. From these positions they can legislate people into conformity.

This modern Mao-Fascist system still employs brute force when needed, as the SWAT raids of peaceful farmers and communities increase in frequency, while peaceful protest can lead to surveillance and intimidation. Although, this campaign prefers to cloud the sheer brutality of it by legitimizing the codes and enforcement thereof in the name of public safety and the “greater good.” In this way, one now becomes a violator of laws — not of an ideology per se — made to jump through hoops that continuously change in size and location. Mao was less devious.

America’s obsession with law and order, has conveniently inculcated a complete lack of sympathy for lawbreakers (evildoers), or those who seem like they might break the law. This is an essential cultural feature that also worked well under Mao, as there was a strong prejudice by city dwellers toward their rural counterparts. Suspicion of lifestyle is the key. We often hear people say, “If you have nothing to hide, then don’t worry.” However, when bureaucracy takes hold, everyone eventually becomes a lawbreaker. The mountain of rules, regulations, codes of conduct, and arbitrary decisions about conformity have created a Great Wall of Bureaucracy for which Mao would be frothing with envy to behold. Frighteningly, America has a burgeoning prison-industrial complex ready-made to accommodate the increasing flood of violators. Modern day America doesn’t have to purge their independent class into mass graves, just lock them away.

Among the new class of evildoers is The Entrepreneur. These independents, who have built the middle-class of America, are now burdened by a cost of doing business where it is difficult to justify the investment of time and money. This terrific 5-minute video perfectly captures their plight:

The impact that this creeping control structure has had on America’s social climate is beyond measure, but a trove of financial statistics bears out the magnitude of the financial loss. Here a few key measures of how America’s foundation of entrepreneurial independence has been eroded by bureaucracy and collectivism:

A country that issued a Declaration of Independence has only one growth industry remaining: government. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Overview of the 2008-2018 Projections shows that since government has now co-opted health care, finance, insurance, and information, it will hold fully 30% of all future employment growth, far outweighing any private sector.

America has all but fully succumbed to Globalization, which is bureaucracy writ large. Thus, a nation of producers has become a nation of consumers. The production capacity of a solid manufacturing base (in a free market) fosters independence; the declining productivity of a country through the sacrifice of its manufacturing guarantees dependence.

According to The Land Institute: In 1801, when Jefferson became president, 95 percent of Americans essentially made their full-time living from agriculture. By the turn of the 20th century, it was 45 percent, and by the turn of the 21st less than 2 percent.

The true “endgame” of this multi-level control system might be nebulous, but at the heart of every theory — conspiracy or otherwise — is the elimination of all independence. Which brings us back to food: What kind of system would attack the very foundation of freedom?

According to historian, Frank Dikötter, this was Mao’s system; and he killed 45 million people implementing it. So, where is America headed through proposed bills like S. 510? If there is one place to focus our efforts of resistance, it should be toward any system that diminishes independence and promotes state control. Especially if that state now has a logo branded on its flag.